Toy Soldiers
by Zeroofthedragons
Summary: The colonies, having come to an agreement for peace 100 years ago, AC 198, but now they are causing trouble. Earth is the Waste Planet, and Ryan is a boy who has grown up there dreaming of space. When he gets his chance to pilot his own gundam, he nearly


Zero: Hi all! I have started another story, cuz I can't really keep going on the others. However, I am not forgetting them. I am getting back into the swing of things, what with Christmas Break arriving. Although...my parents have been shopping a lot lately so between my presents (hopefully FFVIII and FFX-2) I may not get much done...I'll stay updated tho!

I hope you all like this story. I wrote it a few months ago, then stopped. Then I heard Eminem's song "Like Toy Soldiers" and I knew that's what I'd call it, so I finished it. Ryan is a normal boy on the Waste Planet. He dreams of the Colonies, but never really thinks he'll live to see one up close. But then a Gundam touches the ground and not just to deliver water and food. He is recruited for a new war, but what he doesn't understand at first is how the colonies are run...what made Heero strive to kill himself one hundred years ago...what haunts Heero so that he survives those one hundred years...

After Colony 198

"You're not going to take me alive!" the brunette shouted, hardly being heard over the roaring aircraft that pursued him through the driving rain. His legs gave out from under him and he stumbled, but he quickly jumped back up and plowed on. He couldn't let these men catch him! They'd lock him up, just like they did the other four, then perform tests- he just couldn't go through that again without going insane, no matter what his training told him to do.

"Pilot 01, Heero Yuy. Please respond." The magnified voice of the man in control of the helicopter reached the young man's ears. Heero ran, his shoes slipping over the rocks as he made his way to the ocean. He was now on a cliff, one that overlooked the sea on Earth itself. Rocks were directly below, and foam splashed up, spraying him as he made his way to the very edge. He looked down, then up at the helicopter.

He dove, his arms pointed out in front of him.

"No! Commander, we lost him………" The soldier sighed heavily, thinking that they were indeed defeated. They had just lost the best pilot, and a good man. "He was still so young……....only nineteen………"

"Lower this thing!" Commander Kelly ordered. Everyone jumped up, ready to obey his wishes. The commander had just spotted movement. The boy had resurfaced, meaning he hadn't been squashed by the rocks themselves.

The chopper was directed as low as the machine could go without hitting the water, and Commander Kelly had to use the ladder to land on one of the rocks nearest to the pilot. He reached out and caught Heero's arm before the boy could float away in the current. He pulled him up onto the rock, which was rather large and flat, to examine the wounds inflicted. It had been a long drop, and surely he had been hit by a boulder on the way down.

There was blood matting his hair already, a jagged gash across his left cheek. One of his arms was twisted in an odd angle, not to mention the countless cuts and spots where bruises were already welling up. The boy seemed to be unconscious to top it all off. But he was alive!

"Lucky bastard………" Kelly said, respecting the boy that was half his age even more than he had in the war. Commander Kelly had been upgraded from a normal-ranking soldier to commander shortly after the 195 war ended but before the new one had begun.

He signaled to his crew, and they flew over to him, the ladder trailing at Commander Kelly's feet as he lifted Heero up and draped him over one shoulder. Carefully, slowly, he made his way back up, balancing the two of them on the small ladder. With a grunt, the Commander heaved Heero onto the floor of the inside of the chopper, and paramedics rushed to his side to dress the wounds and set the bone before it started to heal improperly.

"He might not make it," one of them informed the Commander. "He took a serious blow to the head, and is currently experiencing a severe concussion. If he's not strong enough, as many of us suspect is the case given his current records and probable pre-insanity, then he will remain in this state forever. It's strange, Sir, that the body will not deteriorate as time goes. I've seen the exact same thing in my son, who was still alive yet not with us for ten years. I know what I am dealing with."

"Ten years?!" Kelly roared. The war would be done and over within two. No one, by then, would care if Heero Yuy survived or not.

"Sir, please calm down. Those are merely the results. Could I change them, I would, gladly. I would change them for the pilot of the Wing Zero in the past war………but I cannot." He lowered his head as he heaved a great sigh.

100 years later

The war of 198 was a bloody one. It wiped out nearly the whole planet's population. Of course, it had been caused by an uprising in the colonies, one of which decided it had the right to rule. Actually, it's not the colonies' fault; it's the civilians' to blame. Now, in the year 298, the Earth is nothing more than a wasteland, even to those that live on its once beautiful surface. The civilians that do remain live with guards at their door, to make sure they don't rebel against the ruling colonies. Lives are nothing compared to one's wishes.

Recently, the Earth's core has been showing signs of life. Volcanoes are around every corner, even if they are not the dramatic skyscraper dome shape most kids grew up used to. They're more like vents, holes in the ground that emit lava and ash. Sometimes, the eruptions- the ash fall, the lava flows- are visible without a telescope from space. The ash, when it's on good terms, clouds up the sky for a week, covering everyone and everything in gray dust. When it gets nasty, the sun could be blocked for a month.

The human will to survive is a great thing.

None of the surviving humans will be around anymore, once the whole core explodes, covering the whole surface in a fresh sheet of lava. Lava melts everything in its path. Lava leaves no escape route………

Morning

"Ryan! Could you please pick up the groceries today? Daniel's out, and Thor completely refuses."

The young boy grunts a reply as he stumbles down the stairs. He absently runs a hand through his messy hair, only adding more grease to it. He hadn't had a bath in days; water was brought down from the colonies once every two weeks, and food every other week, but there was always more gallons of water than food sent- the colonies knew how to create water in large quantities. The civilians had to learn how to conserve, and many did. Those that didn't were usually shot down early, before they caused problems in the future. Survival of the fittest.

Ryan grabbed the list and left the house, walking out to another blistering hot day. There were no tar roads anymore; they had become tar pits. Everything was cement, and there wasn't any wood housing, either. It caught on fire too easily.

As soon as Ryan stepped outside, sweat dripped off his forehead. His clothes were sticking to his lean frame the instant the sun's rays caught the small figure walking alone in the desolate place. Though, to anyone that stood next to him, he was the tallest of his age. Not that tall was a good thing. Being tall meant being bigger, and being bigger meant you needed more food and water to sustain yourself.

He reached the store and walked inside to the welcome shade. The bell announced his presence even before the door had closed. No one paid any attention, no one ever did. What one came and did was the individual's business.

He walked along the aisle, half of this week's supply already gone. He grabbed the items that were on the list, a bread-like candy bar that wouldn't melt in his pocket, and a can of instant milk, just add water. No one paid for the food, though the guard at the door checked to make sure you didn't take too much. Sure enough, as the bell told of Ryan's departure, the guard checked his bag and nodded.

Walking home, the boy felt sorry for the guard. He had been free once, up on a colony, then he'd been assigned as a guard, back down here on Earth. The pathetic planet.

"I'm back, mom!" Ryan announced as he placed the bag on the counter. He took his candy bar and headed back upstairs, where loud rock music started blaring.

"Thanks, Ryan, honey," His mom said as she passed his room down the hallway. He just rolled his eyes and shut his door.

Afternoon

Nothing ever happens that would be considered exciting, on planet Earth. The closest you could come to that was an extra visit by the colonies, dropping off extra food and water. Mount Chester erupting was greeted with groans and curses.

The volcano, not the biggest but still large, fumed as it sent ash thousands of feet into the air, and lava half that high before it touched ground. Ryan watched the volcano, though it was near one hundred miles away, from his bedroom window. The whole landscape was flat and cracked, anyway. The ash would reach Ryan's little town in a matter of minutes.

He snapped his fingers, and the radio turned off. It was solar-powered, as batteries and electricity wasn't allowed on Earth any longer. With a sigh, he started downstairs. His stomach reminded him for the umpteenth time that he hadn't eaten in a while, and his mother had started fixing their dinner early. Patiently, he waited, watched, plotted, as his mother busied herself in the kitchen. It was normal for him to try and swipe something when his mother wasn't there, but that was not to be the case on that day.

"Ryan, get out here! I need your help fixing up this tarp before the ash hits."

He sighed, pulled back from the kitchen counter, and headed outside. His father could never put anything up by himself anymore. Too much sun- skin cancer. His arms wouldn't move up very far, and his skin blistered at a touch. So, maybe it was more than skin cancer. Anyway, it was always helpful to have two young and able boys around.

Daniel was his older brother, and a right jerk if Ryan had ever seen one. The older teen thought only of himself, unless his mother or father were involved. Ryan was a nobody as far as he was concerned.

Thor- Ryan never referred to him as 'dad'- had him set up the tarp to cover all entrances to the house, preventing the ash from getting inside. He brushed a strand of brown hair out of his eyes as he worked with the material. It wasn't like the plastic tarps of the past, but a different material that would not melt. His green eyes danced with pleasure as the tarp went and stayed where it was supposed to- it usually took quite a few times!

Then the ash started falling in heaps. It coated Ryan and made him cough quicker than he could blink. Thor, defying all skin problems, grabbed Ryan from where he stood at the side of the house and dragged him inside. Ryan coughed out what ash he could, then drank the water that his mother fetched for him. Then he shook his head, dust falling like fresh gray snow onto the floor.

His mother was beginning to fret. "Oh, Daniel's not back yet. Do you think he got caught out there? Oh, what if he's out there right now, suffocating in that shi-"

"Mom! He's not that dense! He'd find shelter, don't worry." Ryan prided himself on knowing about his brother, even if it didn't work the other way around.

Night

Ryan was still up as the ash started to clear up, even though now you couldn't see it. The sky was always dark at this time, darker than it had ever been with the colonies blocking out most of the moon. It was also colder, below freezing. No one that got caught outside survived a few minutes.

Inside, it was warmer but not to an extreme amount. The hot air that had been trapped inside for the day now rose and left the house. Ryan was curled up in a thick blanket by his window, which had a fresh layer of frost dancing patterns across the pane. He sighed, his breath fogging up with inside of the window. He drew a picture of a mobile doll, one he had seen many times as it dropped off the food supplies. He was just starting to get detailed when it faded away.

Everyone has a wish, no matter how deep, dark, or secretive that wish is. This particular boy would like nothing more to be free. That wish would probably be a common one among the people who remain on Earth, unable to pay their way into the New World up in space. Now, those that lived the luxury the colonies provided- they were mostly after everything that they could get. Ryan never thought of them- he couldn't blame them for wanting a place where they could live without food or water restrictions.

What he never thought about was what was going on up in space. The colonies were always at war, but no one ever found a reason to tell Earthlings that. No one colony was perfect, no one colony was all-powerful. But they all wished to be like that as a whole.

The gundams have long since been destroyed, but since then new models have come into play. There are many custom models to suit each pilot and only that pilot, but there are also mobile dolls and other models that would suit any pilot. No one on Earth, of course, would have ever thought this was possible. Not, of course, until the gundam landed.

Ryan had to squint through his ash-covered window to see what it was at first. Then it came closer, a light on its head illuminating a steel face with intricate designs and horns shooting out of the side of its face. It seemed to be black at first, in the darkness outside, but Ryan could pick out the reds and greens on its cold body. But, why would a mobile suit come out here, in the middle of a frozen night?

A light was shone in the boy's face as the mobile suit looked up, through the window at him. Ryan fancied he could see a human looking straight at him, instead of the lifeless face. He didn't know whether to wave or run for cover. But then, just as quickly, the gundam pulled back. Jets hidden in iron wings suddenly popped out and flame rushed out, sending the gundam into the sky and out of sight within seconds.

Ryan couldn't understand it at all. Why bother to come here, when it had all that space to explore up there? He groaned silently, feeling slightly depressed, teased by the sight of what freedom looked like. With dreary thoughts like those, he settled into a curled-up position and stared at his wall. Since there was no electricity, candles were used to light the houses at night. His own candle was emitting a thick, perfumed smoke by now. It was normally used by him to get to sleep- who didn't have trouble sleeping every night when you knew that there was freedom just out of reach?

He watched his shadow dance with the flame on the opposite wall. He didn't know when his eyes slipped shut, but they did and he entered a peaceful, yet eventful sleep. He dreamed he was a pilot, flying in his own gundam freely throughout space.

Morning

Ryan rolled over, grunted as he reached a cold area on the floor, and sat up. His mind was sending out images of the gundam he had seen, but he dismissed them as a dream or a light trick. He rubbed his eyes and stood up, instantly dropping back down to the floor to grab his blanket. With it wrapped around him, he walked down the stairs and to the main room. As he suspected, no one was up yet but him. The sky was just turning pink as the sun's first rays appeared over the horizon. It wouldn't take long now, at least, for it to get warm.

It was then that Ryan noticed the probable thigh-deep sea of ash outside. He groaned inwardly; this would take a long time to shovel up, and the rains seldom came to this area to wash it away. He was beginning to imagine a place on Earth where it rained more frequently, and the sun wasn't always there in your face day after day. He thought about clouds. The only kind that ever came around here were those that contained dry lightning, or heat lightning. Now, those were dangerous.

The sound of someone walking in interrupted Ryan's bliss-filled thoughts. He turned quickly, to find Thor standing in the doorway. He was limping quite a bit, and his arms were bruised. Ryan felt like he was a fault. It was his own fault he had not gotten down the ladder faster.

"Hey, Thor………um, look. About yesterday………I'm sor-" Thor cut him off with a rather painful looking wave of his hand.

"Don't worry 'bout it, son," he said, offering a smile. Ryan returned the smile.

They went about everything as normal. Usually one, once a 'normal' was started here on Earth, ALWAYS followed that routine. In this certain household, everyone woke up when they did, ate breakfast of a cereal bar with milk, and then went about doing chores. This time, the chores would include stepping outside and sweeping the ash away from the house. They had to take special advantage of such a short euption.

Ryan was just finishing his cereal bar- they couldn't waste water by using bowls- and throwing his wrapper into the recycling bin when his mother came down. He debated whether or not to tell her about the gundam the night before, but he decided against it. It wasn't like she'd do anything but fret over the colonies and their reasons for this or that. He let her kiss his cheek as he returned the 'good morning' as he walked out to the main room. He slipped on his shoes, picked up a shovel, and headed outside. He would not force Thor to do this work and, if he got it done quick enough, maybe he'd get a bonus of a long-awaited bath.

The first two or three shovel loads were hard- the soot and ash stood near his waist and the shovel weighed near twenty pounds. But he caught on quickly and began a rhythm both his mind and his body could keep up. To keep himself busy, and his mind off of the Gundams, Ryan started humming softly. He was so into what he was doing, making such progress, that he didn't notice the girl approaching until she spoke, and her shadow drifted across the section of ash he was working on.

"Hey there."

Ryan wiped the sweat from his forehead with a dirty sleeve and looked up. He didn't recognize her, though she seemed to be about his age –fourteen- and had apparently not lived on Earth for quite some time, if not her whole life. She had blonde hair, as opposed to his reddish-brown, and a slim build. Her perfectly white blouse had not one speck of dirt on it, nor did her lilac skirt.

Ryan blinked, trying hard not to stare. He'd never seen a woman so clean!

"Um………hi," he replied, setting his shovel down. "I don't mean to be rude, but………who are you?"

"Oh, excuse me," she giggled. "I didn't properly introduce myself." There was a pause, in which she straightened her already straight skirt. Speaking of which, there was not a wrinkle on her, only light blue lipstick that matched her eyes. "My name's Katrina Louise Kelly. I believe you are Ryan Masato?" When he nodded, she added, "I have been sent to retrieve you for training."

"T-training?" Ryan stuttered. He wasn't sure he'd heard right, anyway.

"Yes, for the Gundams."

"Gundams?"

"I do believe you've heard of them? You Earthlings may be remote, but not that much so! You must know there is a war going on, up in space? You have heard of the colonies, I hope."

Ryan did not like her tone, but all of this was intriguing. Him, trained to be a Gundam Pilot and fight for the colonies?

"I know what Gundams are! And the colonies!" he snapped. "But I didn't know there was a war going on."

"Well," she replied with a slight weave of her hips. She placed one delicate hand on her hip, the fingernails painted blue with an intricate design in white on each. "There is. And we happen to be losing against the 27th Colony. I was sent from the 20th Colony to recruit Earthlings to join our forces. You were one of them on the list. I wish for you to come."

"Er………ok!"

She smiled, the action itself seeming to shine. "Alright then. We leave for space at sixteen hours." With that, she turned, her skirt twirling, and strode off.

Ryan blinked after her. Then he realized that he wasn't sure of what 'sixteen hours' meant. On Earth, they didn't bother to keep time, or track of days, anymore. It was all the same, all the time.

"Hey! Wait up!" But the girl, Katrina, was already gone. With a scowl, he resolved to ask Mom later. For now, he picked up his shovel and started to work once more.

Afternoon

Ryan finished up the section of land his family owned, clearing all of the ash onto the public ground. He sighed heavily, wiping his forehead again. There were smears of dirt on his face, and his green eyes were clouded with fatigue. He dropped the shovel against the side of the building he called home and walked in.

The difference in temperature was great! Mom must have found a way to block off the attic from the rest of the house- the attic was where all of the hot air from outside was trapped, and it ended up being pushed down with warmer and warmer air, shoving it into the house. But now- it had to be near eighty!

He walked into the kitchen, grabbing a paper cup and filling it with lemonade from the cooler. He always made it a point to buy lemons at the store so he could make his own lemonade, even though there was a shortage of sugar. That didn't bother him; he was usually bitter and so he liked the bitter taste. He popped an ice cube from the storage bag in the cooler into his cup, added a straw, and walked into the main room again.

Thor was lying in bed, he was informed, and his mother was sitting in the chair reading a book. He sat in companionable silence with her for a while before he spoke.

"Mom?" When she looked up, he continued, "What is sixteen hours?"

She blinked, remaining silent for a moment, as if caught up in a thought. Then she replied, "That simply means four 'o'clock, Dear." At the look he gave her, she added, "In a little while, just before we start dinner."

He nodded. "Ok, thanks."

"Why do you want to know all of a sudden?" She asked him. He just shrugged. Ryan didn't know what he would say- it had been so abrupt, the meeting with the girl. He sighed and relaxed with his lemonade.

Four 'o'clock came up quicker than he thought it would. There was a big swooshing noise, and the ash outside was swept into the air, swirling around a large dark figure. The sun was completely blocked and the whole house cast into shadow. Ryan's mother jumped up. "What's that?" She cried out in alarm.

Ryan jumped to his feet, placing his glass down on the table. "It's ok, mother. It's just a mobile suit."

"JUST a mobile suit? What does it want? No, I won't stand for it if they have chosen us to be the next ones to leave! I just won't!"

Ryan crossed the space between them and clasped her shoulder gently. "I spoke to a girl that came out of a mobile suit yesterday. She said she…wanted me to go with her…for training."

For a moment, all of the color washed out of his mother's face. Then, slowly, with a glance towards the dark shape as if to make sure his words held some truth, tears filled her eyes. She walked over and hugged him. Caught by surprise, he took a step back- only to find he couldn't move within her embrace. "…Mother?" He asked, a little embarrassed and confused. "What is it?"

"Oh…it's just…You're so lucky…to have a chance at freedom."

Now, the girl was at the door, about to knock. Ryan tried to pull away, but his mother only tightened her grip before slowly letting go. "I've heard stories…of children who get taken to space from Earth."

But she stopped herself from saying anything more. Whether they were good stories, or bad, Ryan would never know. "Tell Thor…" He paused, swallowed, and then continued. "That I love him." His mother nodded and stepped away just as the door opened.

"Ready, kid?" Katrina Louise Kelly asked him. Today, she was dressed in a pink strapless shirt with short, short, blue shorts. Ryan nods and walks over to her, hoisting a pack over his shoulder. "You must be his mother…" She adds, nodding to Ryan's mother approvingly. "Your son is in good hands. Now, soldier," she continues as she turns back towards the door, glancing at him to make sure he's paying attention. "We're on a tight schedule so get your rear in gear and out of here."

Ryan nods, smiles and waves at his mother once more, and walks out of the house. A blast of heat reminds him that one, he hasn't had a bath in days, and two, he's really looking forward to the air-conditioned colonies.


End file.
